Why did alexander II emancipate the serfs Essay

Below is an essay on "Why did alexander II emancipate the serfs" from Anti Essays, your source for research papers, essays, and term paper examples.

Tsar Alexander II was a conservative who believed it was his divine right to rule Russia. This autocratic rule was described as “tyrannical” by many who visited especially for the treatment to the serfs, which were finally emancipated in 1861. Alexander II’s conservative rule created causes over time, which eventually led to the emancipated the serfs in 1861. This makes conservatism the single most important cause as it formed the foundations of the “domino effect” of other causes in the lead up to the emancipation of the serfs. These other causes are all political social and economical factors which helped to free the serfs. And had the Tsar taken a more liberal view on his rule the emancipation may never have happened.
Firstly there are many political causes for the emancipation of the serfs. The bankruptcy of nobles who were the tsar’s main supporters was, caused because of the inefficiency of using serfs to farm lands, which meant most nobles were losing money and by 1860 over 60% of serfs were mortgaged to the government meaning they were “unofficially” no longer tied to their land. This meant serfdom was already coming to its own natural end, and for Alexander II to support his nobles he had to emancipate the serfs so they could go start increasing their wealth and get out of debt. Serfdom was also holding Russia back, with the rest of Europe liberalising and making vast economic progress Russia’s economy was starting to look inferior and for them to advance as a nation they had to increase productivity of the serfs and the simple solution was to emancipate them. The serfs were inefficient and had a low productivity due to poor farming methods and constantly being oppressed by their nobles. This oppression and poor farming was caused by the extremely conservative rule which refused to modernise, had the Tsar modernised the farming techniques and stopped the oppression the emancipation may not have needed to happen. This relates to my earlier point of...